# Celibacy explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by Georgia Douglas Johnson.

## What happens

The speaker reflects on the absence of love, feeling it as a restless, leashed energy within the body, waiting and biding time.

## Themes in this chapter

### Love and Loss

The poem mourns the love that never came, felt as a loss within the body.

### Isolation and Otherness

The speaker's celibacy isolates them from love, leaving them restless and alone.

## Character check-ins

### Unknown

The speaker experiences the absence of love as a physical, restless presence.

### Life

Love is personified as something that might have been, now flung away.

## Key lines

> Where is the love that might have been Flung to the far ends of Earth?

The love that could have existed is now lost and distant.

_The speaker questions the whereabouts of a potential love that never materialized._

> In my body stamping around, In my body like a hound Leashed and restless⁠— Biding time!

The unfulfilled desire moves inside me like a restless, leashed dog waiting.

_The speaker describes the physical sensation of pent-up longing._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_9_se/chapters/celibacy
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_9_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_9_se/chapters